blue oat grass

noun

: a tufted, perennial, evergreen grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens) native to southwestern Europe that is grown as an ornamental for its thin, stiff, grayish-blue leaves and straw-colored, erect, panicled spikelets

Glimmering blue oat grass makes perfect evergreen hemispheres of icy blue between the stonelike mounds of hebes.

—Ann Lovejoy, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 26 June 2003

Plants such as blue oat grass harmonize with the colors of the flower blossoms and add contrasting shape.

—Susan Davis Price, Minnesota Monthly, June/July 2005

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above

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